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Mean Angel
Mean "Mean Machine" Angel is a member of the Angel Gang and one of the sons of Elmer "Pa" Angel. He is nicknamed "Butting Man" for his favourite attack, a vicious headbutt with his metal plate. His famous dial has four settings: 1, where he's surly and disagreeable; 2, where he's mean; 3, where he's vicious; and 4, which is when he is fully berserk. On occasion, an extremely hard headbutt causes Mean Machine's dial to get stuck on 4½, which causes him to go berserk, unable to stop headbutting anything he comes across. Appearance Mean is a large muscular man with heavy cyborg implements: a small dial on his forehead with four settings, a large optic, and a giant metal claw for a left arm. His right arm has been cut off for years and remained a stump. Personality Mean started out as a happy, docile and friendly little child, but Pa Angel made sure to turn him into a dim-witted, easily angered psychopath. Mean was constantly rowdy and breaking the law but, unlike most of his family, was capable of not being violent: he fell in love with Porsha Wuss and agreed to be conditioned to be a pacifist again, and willingly went to jail when this didn't work. When his dial has been removed, Mean has become docile and friendly. History When he was young, he was gentle, nice and utterly unlike his viciously criminal family. Pa Angel was not pleased by this, beating him "for your own good" when he found Mean cuddling a kitten. His childhood was spent being viciously abused so that he and his brothers would become mean. Pa would beat them, set dogs on them, and shoot at them as "combat training" - and his brothers joined in, such as the time Link killed his brother's pet rabbit. "Destiny's Angels" and "The Three Amigos" for the cat story On Mean's twelfth birthday, Pa kidnapped a surgeon from nearby Texas City to operate on him, making him the crazed cyborg he is now. When Mean screamed in terror that he didn't want his arm cut off, Pa told him he was getting "a better one". "Destiny's Angels" and "Travels With Muh Shrink" for the cat story In his new crazed state, Mean would be permanently mean and fondly remembered Pa's tortures as "the happiest days o' my life".Psycho Analysis He married Sarah “Seven-Pound” Sadie Suggs, a competing Cursed Earth criminal named after the 7lb hammer she used when committing her crimes. This was part of a trick: she conned him into demonstrating his highest setting by ramming the side of the shack the Angels lived in, collapsing it on the rest of the Angels and then absconding with the loot they'd had extorted from neighboring people as "wedding gifts". Unknown to Mean, she had a son: Mean Junior. In 2102, the Angel Gang were attempting to flee Lone Star Justice and, in the process, kidnapped the "Judge Child" Owen Krysler as a hostage. Judge Dredd pursued the gang across space for Krysler and in the process, Mean was killed. The psychotic Krysler later brought Mean back from the dead with advanced chemicals, so he and his brother Fink Angel could kill Dredd for him. Mean went to Mega-City One by hijacking a shuttle, teamed up with Fink, and butted Walter the Wobot so hard that he was considered a write-off. In the end, Dredd arrested him after getting him to fight with Fink.Destiny's Angels In Mega-City One's custody (usually in the notorious Iso-Block 666), he has spent many years being 'cured' only to relapse, escaping for brief periods, or even being used by Justice Department. Mean was first 'employed' when he was brainwashed to think Dredd was Pa Angel so he'd lead him across the Radlands to a lost ship.Dredd Angel The most unusual mission he was in was in the summer of 2117, when he was used with Judge Death to convince warlord Clinton Box that Dredd had gone rogue. Mean worked loyally for Dredd in this "Three Amigos" gang for the promise of being released, never to be arrested again if he stayed out of Mega-City One - he was then released on the Black Atlantic side of the wall, forcing him to 'attempt entry'.The Three Amigos His fame meant the Mega-City One Cyborg Club made him their honourary chairman.Megazine 219 One time, Mean teamed up with the dimension-crossing mercenary Lobo.Judge Dredd/Lobo During his breakouts, he discovered his son Junior who had grown up to be just as kind and gentle as the young Mean was. In 2126, Mean fell in love with a visiting do-gooder called Porsha Wuss (who had a history of getting attached to prisoners she worked with). In order to be with her, he agreed to have an experimental brain implant called the Warden Device that would deliver extreme pain when he got angry. This actually worked and their wedding went ahead, with Mean Junior as his best man and the Cyborg Club arriving uninvited. Unfortunately, Cyberfreak, wanting to show he was tougher than Mean after he'd been banned from the club, attacked the wedding. Mean refused to resort to violence until Cyberfreak hurt Porsha: enraged, Mean shorted out the device and butted his head clean off and almost killed Porsha before he could calm down. Distraught, he voluntarily went back to the cubes and turned down another Warden as he could not be sure he would ever be safe. Judge Dredd Megazine #218-20: "Mean Machine: Angel Heart" Finally in 2129, the Judges succeeded in removing both his dial and claw for good, reverting him to his original simple and peaceful self. Dredd was left disturbed by this anticlimactic end, coming at a time when he was feeling his age. Mean was released into the care of his son.Prog 1536 Mean got a job in a breaker's yard with a new arm and slowly built up a life, being known for his good nature and helping old ladies - though he was frequently attacked by the relatives of his victims and the occasional Judge who had lost a partner to him. He managed to be happy and content until Chaos Day. The Chaos Bug turned Mean psychotic again and while, unlike every other victim, it somehow wore off, it was only by luck that his son had been out. Mean went into the Cursed Earth to be away from people. He died in the Cursed Earth but exactly how is known only in stories. According to one, recounted by Henry Dubble of the Black Museum, Mean was enslaved by a criminal gang and told to take them to Pa Angel's treasure stashes - otherwise the other slaves would be killed. Mean was now old, his brain damaged by the Bug, and started to hallucinate his own younger self encouraging him to use violence for good before he died. He made sure to find one of Pa's weapon stashes so that the slaves could overthrow their masters. Mean died after this and the surviving slaves spread his story. Dubble implies, even as he admits he likely made it up, that Mean may have risen from the dead yet again...Megazine 359: "Rising Angel" See Also * Mean Machine Angel (Christopher Adamson) Category:Criminals Category:Characters Category:Lives on Cursed Earth Category:Angel Gang Category:Judge Dredd Comic Characters Category:Reformed criminals Category:Judge Dredd Comic Criminals Category:Cyborgs